EAST LANSING, Mich. — The father of a student who survived both the Oxford High School and Michigan State University mass shootings is sharing his experience as a parent during the unthinkable.
Matt Riddle's daughter, Emma, was at Oxford High School when a classmate opened fire in November 2021. Four students were killed and six students and a teacher were injured.
On Monday, Emma was at MSU when a man began shooting in two areas of campus, killing three students and wounding five.
She posted a tweet that went viral, asking when gun violence and mass shootings will end:
As a parent, Matt said the first shooting Emma survived was shocking—and experiencing two separate shootings so close together was even harder.
"It's like anything else, you wish it didn't happen, and you wish there would be changes to stop it from happening, but you don't expect it to happen to you," Matt said.
He said on the day of the Oxford shooting, Emma called him in tears as she evacuated the school. He said by experiencing the same thing in the MSU shooting, it's amplifying the trauma she's already dealing with.
"She's feeling the same fear and emotions and the same trauma that she experienced 14 months ago, and it's happening again," he said. "So as a parent, it takes a piece of you. All you want to do is protect them, and all you want to do is keep them safe."
In the days since the shooting, the MSU community has held vigils and gatherings to mourn the students who were killed and support each other.
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